The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1887-10-20


the theological seminaries so loaded up
that we take the first ten years to show our
people how much we know, and the next
ten years get our people to know as much
as we know, and at the end find that neither
of us know anything as we ought to know.
Here are hundreds and thousands of sim
ming, struggling and dying people, who
need to realize Just one thiug-that Jesus
Christ came to save them, and will save
them now. But we go into profound and
elaborate definition of what justification is,
and after all tho work there are not, outside
of the learned profession, 500 people in
the United States who can tell what iusti-
fication is. will read you the definition:
justification is purely forensic act, the
act of Judge sitting in the forum, in which
the Supreme Ruler and Judge, who is ac-
countable to none, and who alone knows
the manner in which the ends of His uni
versal government can best be obtained,
reckons that which was done by the sub
stitute in the same manner as if it had
been done by those who believe in the sub
stitute, and not ON account of anything
done by tn m, but purely on account of
this gracious method of reckoning, grants
them the full remission of their SINS"
Now, what is iustificaton2 l will tell
lieyes God let's him off. One summer in
Connecticut l went to a large factory, and
saw over the door written the words: "No
Admittance. l entered and saw over the
next door: "No Admittance." OF course
l entered. got inside and found it n pin
factory, and they were making pins, very
serviceable, fine, and useful pins. So the
spirit of eXclusiveness has practically writ
ten over the outside door of many church:
"No Admittance." And if the stranger
enters he finds practically written over the
second door: "No Admittance." And il
he goes in, over all the pew doors seems
written: "No Admittance;" while the min
lister stands in the pulpit, hammering out
his little niCeties OF belief, pounding ont
the technicalities of religion, making pins.
In the most practical, common sense way,
and laying aside the nom essentials and the
hard definitions of religion, 20 out on the
God-given mission, telling the people
what they need, and when and how they
can geti it,
Comparatively little effort as yet has
been made to save that large class of per-
sons in our midst called skeptics, and he
who goes to work here will not be building
upon another mans foundation. There is
great multitude Of them. They are
son we don't know how to treat them.
One of this class met Christ, and hear with
what tenderness and pathos and beauty
and success Christ dealt with him: Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and with all thy soul and with all
thy mind and with all thy strength. This
is the first commandment; and the second
is like to this, namely, thou shalt love thy
neighbor rs thyself. There is no other
commandment greater than this. And the
scribe said to Him: Well, Master, Thou
hnr sold no 'ru'b ror th,-e - ono Cod
and to love Him with all the heart and all
the understanding and all the soul and all
the strength is more than whole burnt
offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw
that he answered discreetly He said unto
him: "Thou art not far from the kingdom
of God" So a skeptic was saved in one
interview. But few Christian people treat
the skeptic in that way. Instead of taking
hold of him with the gentle hand of love
we are apt to take him with the iron pincers
of ecclesiasticism.
You would not be so rough on that man
if you knew by what process he had lost
his faith in Christianity. | have known
men skeptical from the fact that they
grew up in houses where religion was over
done. Sunday was the most awful day of
the week. They had religion driven into
them with trip-hammer; they we're sur
feited with prayer meetings; they were
stuffed and choked with catechisms; they
were often told they were the worst boys
the parents ever knew because they liked
to ride down hill better than TO read Bum
yan's Pilgrims Progress." Whenever
father and mother talked Of religion they
drew down the corners OF their mouth and
rolled up their eyes. If any one thing will
send boy or girl to perdition sooner than
another, that is it. If / had had such
father and mother l fear should have
been an infidel.
Remember skepticism always has some
reason, good or bad, for existing. GOethe's
irreligion started when the news came to
Germany of the earthquake at Lisbon,
Nov ], IT'S. That $4,000 people should
have perished in that earthquake and in
the after rising of the Tagus River so
stirred his sympathies that he threw up
his belief in the goodness of God.
Others have gone into skepticism from
natural persistence in asking the reason
why. They have been fearfully stabbed
of the interrogation point. There are so
many things they cannot get explained.
They cannot understand the Trinity or how
God can be sovereign and yet man free
agent. Neither can |. They say 81
don't understand why good God should
have let sin come into the world" Neither
do I. You say: "Why was that child
started in life with such disadvantages,
while others have all physical and mental
equipment" | cannot tell. They go out
OF church on Easter morning and say;
"Thit doctrine Of the resurrection con-
founded me-" So it is to me mystery
beyond unTavelment. l understand all the
processes by which men get into the dark.
| know them all. have travelled with
burning feet that blistered way. The first
word that children learn to utter is gem
orally papa or mamma. / think the first
word l ever uttered was why" I know
what it is TO have hundred midnights
pour their darkness into ono hoUr. Such
men are not TO be scOtted mt but helped.
Turn your back upon . drowning man
when you have a rope with which to pull
him ashore, and let that woman in the
third story of a house perish in the flames
when you have a ladder with which to help
her out and help her down, rather than
turn your back scofingly on a skeptic
whose soul is In more peril than the
bodies of those other endangered ones
possibly can be. On, skepticism is q dark
land. There are men in this house who
would give thousand worlds if they pos-
sessed them, to get back to the
placid faith Of their fathers and
mothers, and it is our place
to help them, and We may help them, never
through their heads, bus always through
their hearts. These skeptics, when brought
to Jesus, will be nightly affected, far moro
so than those who never examined the evil
dences of Christianity Thomas Chalmers
was once skeptic, Robert Hail a skeptic,
Robert Newton q skeptic, Christmas Evans
skeptic. But when once with strong
hands they took hold of the chariot of the
Gospel they rolled it on with what mo-
mentuml If l address such men and wo-
men to-day, throw out no scott. l i'm |
plead them by the memory of the good old |